Page 8 - Pharmacy History 32 July 2007

From Bourbon St to oblivion...... The ‘death of a pharmacy’
By Brendan West
My story begins at Davidson’s Pharmacy in Bundaberg, Queensland, a town famous for its production of Australian Rum.
I n 1887 pharmacist John Davidson established what is currently known as Hynes
Pharmacy, at 147 Bourbong Street Bundaberg, in 1887.
Originally the address was 147 Bourbon Street, but sensitive town fathers added the ‘g’ to make the name ‘Bourbong’, at a later date!
The building has the date 1888 in relief on the front, so exact dates are subject to conjecture.
Suffice to say that a pharmacy has operated from the premises for over a century!
Davidson died in March 1911, at 71 years of age, working to the end. The business was purchased by George J Page who moved to Bundaburg after 17 years at Mount Morgan.
Page had began his training in Rockhampton under a Dr Cripps, and completed his studies under Mr Walter Taylor in Brisbane.
He was awarded two medals in pharmacy, the Bailey Medal for Botany, and the Griffin Medal for Materia Medica. These medals were presented by the Mayor of Ipswich,
where Page was working at the time for Mr George Inglis Hudson. of Eumenthol Jujubes fame. (See article in this issue on Page 3)
My great-grandfather, WFS Fox, also did his training at Hudson’s establishment. Page died ‘with his boots on’ in 1928 at the age of 59. The pharmacy was then managed
by Sandy Cameron, who had been engaged to one of Page’s nine daughters, until one of Page’s sons- in-law, Thaddeus F Carroll (known as ‘Teedie’), bought the business in 1929. There appears to have been a great deal of animosity amongst Page’s descendents, with one relative having exclusive custody of his medals and diploma, and refusing to relate to other members of the family. According to another of Page’s daughters, Carroll was ‘not my father’s bootlace’ as a businessman, and the pharmacy went into decline until Carroll sold it in 1939 in the midst
of the depression years, which were difficult times to say the least.
The new owner, George McBride then set about building a strong and loyal following.
His daughter, a customer to this day, describes her father coming home from work to people lined up outside his gate, waiting for a consultation!
8 ■ Pharmacy History Australia
volume 3 ■ no 33 ■ NOVEMBER 2007